How to write in Hebrew or Arabic using Yudit
Posted: Sat 21 Aug 2010, 17:35
Type in Hebrew or Arabic using Yudit
I have written this tutorial in the hope that it will aid in localization
of Puppy projects into Hebrew and Arabic.
There are four free bidirectional text programs available for linux OS,
Abiword,open office,Katoob, and Yudit. Katoob is an abandoned project.
Abiword claims that it is a bidirectional word processor
but it only has only limited abilities.
See picture of Abiword. click to enlarge.
Worst of all, when it saves
a text file with directional info, other programs can't open it
properly. Oddly sometimes Abiword can't even open up it's own text files
properly when there is complex bidirectional info inside. On the other hand, Yudit text files
are opened correctly by other text editors* and is a mature program
that is still being supported.
So I will explain how to type in Hebrew or Arabic using the free
text editor 'Yudit'.
It can be downloaded
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-efdd6654.html
or a new version compiled in precise
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-1cb986e0.html
and here is a website explaining its use
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 65&t=57866
Here is a picture of Yudit using
Hebrew and Arabic to give you an idea of what is possible.
This tutorial is divided into two parts. First of all the simple introduction,
then the second part will demonstrate the advanced features.
This tutorial is entirely in English because I don't understand a word of
Hebrew or Arabic ...but since no one else will write a tutorial on the topic, it is
left to me to fill the void.
You see that Yudit uses a black background for better visibility.
Ordinarily Yudit uses green characters and the typing is right to left
as you would expect.
In this tutorial I will follow the following color scheme:
green--------------->English i.e. European writing
red----------------->insertion mark(usually an arrowhead, (solid or open)
yellow--------------> Hebrew or Arabic writing
blue---------------->carriage return and punctuation
orange-------------->the color of numbers
...and I will always be typing left to right except when entering
a green English word....but more on that later.
When Yudit is first opened with a blank document the insertion
mark is, as expected, on the left side of document and the arrow
is pointing to the right.
However we want the insertion mark to be situated on the
right side of document and to have an arrowhead pointing to the left.
Here is our procedure:
We click twice on the icon named 'Document Text Embedding'. (It would be
more descriptive if the icon (or button) was labeled 'Alignment Tool').
This switches the side of document that the text is aligned to.
Step 1: Click on 'Embedding override' icon (Note that it is in center of
3 green icons)
Step 2: Press <SPACEBAR> to start the text entering process
Step 3: Now click on 'Direction Override' icon.(It is to the left
of previous green icon)
Here is two pictures to help you find these icons.
The arrowhead is now pointing left (and solid red). You can now start typing
Hebrew or Arabic. These will be in yellow characters.
The arrow will now be pointing to the left. I will type the English phrase
'Here is my text.' and you will have to imagine that
it is in Hebrew or Arabic. Note the way this phrase appears on the screen.
Weird,yes,but this is how Hebrew and Arabic works. Think of it a backwards text.
See picture.
Text wrapping should be 'ON' as default, so you can now type a long paragraph
and see it entirely on the screen while you type.
The pictures show the icons to click.
The icons are labeled thanks to 'Tooltips' .
At the end of your paragraph press <ENTER> and you can continue a new paragraph,
however you must start at step 1 again for this new paragraph.
Further editing is possible such as getting rid of unwanted spaces
by pressing <BACKSPACE>
When editing inside a word, the arrowhead opens up but it is still red.
Entering a number is easy.
Inserting European characters and words is very common and useful, for instance
technical documents always need a few English words to describe an action.
I will describe the simplest method I have found.
I suggest leaving a small empty space and once the paragraph is written, add in
the English words.
Step 1: click inside the empty space once,
Step 2: then click the center icon (i.e. Embedding override)
Step 3: Type in the English word. (Note how the insertion arrow now
points to the right and the text color is now green). Directional flow of
text has now reversed. See picture.
To end the editing process click under paragraph. Press <ENTER>
to start a new paragraph underneath the previous one.
If you do anything wrong there is always the undo icon to click.
You can remove some text by selecting it first, then press <BACKSPACE>.
Note that Ctrl-z increases font size
Practice Practice Practice and it will become second nature.
_________________________________________________________________
To remember this procedure I have memorized the phrase
center Space Left
referring to the center green icon ,the spacebar, then the icon to the left
of the center icon.
____________________________________________________________________
double click selects the word
a triple click selects the entire sentence
ctrl-m deletes the whole line
_________________________________________________________________
When Yudit opens it's own text files, it aligns the text to the left of page
but the directional flow of text has been preserved. See picture.
Press on 'Document text embedding' to switch sides.
________________________________________________________________________
Note that numbers can be typed as well but they will be the color orange.
_________________________________________________________________________
If you are using Lucid Puppy 5.1 make sure that you install the fonts for Hebrew
and Arabic that are available from forum.
http://www.diddywahdiddy.net/Puppy500/Fonts-lupu510.pet
___________________________________________________________________________________
...and here is a picture of Hebrew mixed with English words constructed in
Yudit and opened in Geany
_________________________________________________________________________
* I recommend that you avoid starting a paragraph with a <TAB>, use blank spaces instead.
Geany will become confused as to text direction if a paragraph begins with a tab.
Nicoedit despite being a simpler program does not have any problems displaying Yudit text
with a tab.
This picture shows what happens when Geany tries to open a Yudit text file
with a <Tab>
The following picture shows that Nicoedit and Mousepad will
properly display a Yudit file
Nicoedit will further edit the directional text whereas Geany is not
capable of this.
______________________________________________________________________________
I have written this tutorial in the hope that it will aid in localization
of Puppy projects into Hebrew and Arabic.
There are four free bidirectional text programs available for linux OS,
Abiword,open office,Katoob, and Yudit. Katoob is an abandoned project.
Abiword claims that it is a bidirectional word processor
but it only has only limited abilities.
See picture of Abiword. click to enlarge.
Worst of all, when it saves
a text file with directional info, other programs can't open it
properly. Oddly sometimes Abiword can't even open up it's own text files
properly when there is complex bidirectional info inside. On the other hand, Yudit text files
are opened correctly by other text editors* and is a mature program
that is still being supported.
So I will explain how to type in Hebrew or Arabic using the free
text editor 'Yudit'.
It can be downloaded
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-efdd6654.html
or a new version compiled in precise
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-1cb986e0.html
and here is a website explaining its use
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 65&t=57866
Here is a picture of Yudit using
Hebrew and Arabic to give you an idea of what is possible.
This tutorial is divided into two parts. First of all the simple introduction,
then the second part will demonstrate the advanced features.
This tutorial is entirely in English because I don't understand a word of
Hebrew or Arabic ...but since no one else will write a tutorial on the topic, it is
left to me to fill the void.
You see that Yudit uses a black background for better visibility.
Ordinarily Yudit uses green characters and the typing is right to left
as you would expect.
In this tutorial I will follow the following color scheme:
green--------------->English i.e. European writing
red----------------->insertion mark(usually an arrowhead, (solid or open)
yellow--------------> Hebrew or Arabic writing
blue---------------->carriage return and punctuation
orange-------------->the color of numbers
...and I will always be typing left to right except when entering
a green English word....but more on that later.
When Yudit is first opened with a blank document the insertion
mark is, as expected, on the left side of document and the arrow
is pointing to the right.
However we want the insertion mark to be situated on the
right side of document and to have an arrowhead pointing to the left.
Here is our procedure:
We click twice on the icon named 'Document Text Embedding'. (It would be
more descriptive if the icon (or button) was labeled 'Alignment Tool').
This switches the side of document that the text is aligned to.
Step 1: Click on 'Embedding override' icon (Note that it is in center of
3 green icons)
Step 2: Press <SPACEBAR> to start the text entering process
Step 3: Now click on 'Direction Override' icon.(It is to the left
of previous green icon)
Here is two pictures to help you find these icons.
The arrowhead is now pointing left (and solid red). You can now start typing
Hebrew or Arabic. These will be in yellow characters.
The arrow will now be pointing to the left. I will type the English phrase
'Here is my text.' and you will have to imagine that
it is in Hebrew or Arabic. Note the way this phrase appears on the screen.
Weird,yes,but this is how Hebrew and Arabic works. Think of it a backwards text.
See picture.
Text wrapping should be 'ON' as default, so you can now type a long paragraph
and see it entirely on the screen while you type.
The pictures show the icons to click.
The icons are labeled thanks to 'Tooltips' .
At the end of your paragraph press <ENTER> and you can continue a new paragraph,
however you must start at step 1 again for this new paragraph.
Further editing is possible such as getting rid of unwanted spaces
by pressing <BACKSPACE>
When editing inside a word, the arrowhead opens up but it is still red.
Entering a number is easy.
Inserting European characters and words is very common and useful, for instance
technical documents always need a few English words to describe an action.
I will describe the simplest method I have found.
I suggest leaving a small empty space and once the paragraph is written, add in
the English words.
Step 1: click inside the empty space once,
Step 2: then click the center icon (i.e. Embedding override)
Step 3: Type in the English word. (Note how the insertion arrow now
points to the right and the text color is now green). Directional flow of
text has now reversed. See picture.
To end the editing process click under paragraph. Press <ENTER>
to start a new paragraph underneath the previous one.
If you do anything wrong there is always the undo icon to click.
You can remove some text by selecting it first, then press <BACKSPACE>.
Note that Ctrl-z increases font size
Practice Practice Practice and it will become second nature.
_________________________________________________________________
To remember this procedure I have memorized the phrase
center Space Left
referring to the center green icon ,the spacebar, then the icon to the left
of the center icon.
____________________________________________________________________
double click selects the word
a triple click selects the entire sentence
ctrl-m deletes the whole line
_________________________________________________________________
When Yudit opens it's own text files, it aligns the text to the left of page
but the directional flow of text has been preserved. See picture.
Press on 'Document text embedding' to switch sides.
________________________________________________________________________
Note that numbers can be typed as well but they will be the color orange.
_________________________________________________________________________
If you are using Lucid Puppy 5.1 make sure that you install the fonts for Hebrew
and Arabic that are available from forum.
http://www.diddywahdiddy.net/Puppy500/Fonts-lupu510.pet
___________________________________________________________________________________
...and here is a picture of Hebrew mixed with English words constructed in
Yudit and opened in Geany
_________________________________________________________________________
* I recommend that you avoid starting a paragraph with a <TAB>, use blank spaces instead.
Geany will become confused as to text direction if a paragraph begins with a tab.
Nicoedit despite being a simpler program does not have any problems displaying Yudit text
with a tab.
This picture shows what happens when Geany tries to open a Yudit text file
with a <Tab>
The following picture shows that Nicoedit and Mousepad will
properly display a Yudit file
Nicoedit will further edit the directional text whereas Geany is not
capable of this.
______________________________________________________________________________